ms access 2000 - freeware alternative

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daphne Eze
  • Start date Start date
D

Daphne Eze

I need something that will read ms access 2000 files. is there such a beast?

Thanks
Daphne
 
I need something that will read ms access 2000 files. is there such a beast?
Click to expand...

If I understand you right, then - despite your subject line - you don't
look for an access alternative but an *.mdb-viewer. There are quite a
few free programs. Most have more or less sincere glitches or bugs.
That's why you should go the way Mark Warner suggested (Snapshot viewer),
as long as you can convince the creator of the *.mdb to send *.snp files,
instead.

If that's not an option, take a look at "MDB Viewer" and "MDB Browser
and Editor":

http://www.alexnolan.net/software/mdb_viewer_plus.htm
http://jerry_fugini.tripod.com/Index.html

Please note, that MDB Viewer does not show linked tables. (And no
queries other than those of "Selection" type). And you may need to
install or update an appropriate MDAC version (= free Microsoft
download). Access 2000 needs at least MDAC 2.5.

If you have special needs which those programs don't fulfill, please
post a more detailed description of your requirements.

BeAr
 
I had an old copy of OFFICE 97 that a guy gave
me once to do a database for a volunteer organization
BUT I took it off my machine.

Open Office is what you want. It is compatible
with:

Microsoft Office
Microsoft Excell
Microsoft Powerpoint

AND, while it IS NOT compatible
with ACCESS, you can have the people
send you a copy of the file in dBASE format
and import it right into the Open Office Database.

I find it quite the program for FREE. And since
I am usually the one that writes the reports for folks
from their raw data I don't have to worry about losing
Report or Query formats if they send me a file in .DBF
format.


Don Boring
Glendora, CA USA

"War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." George Orwell
http://members.ispwest.com/don.boring/bigbrother.jpg
 
Daphne said:
I need something that will read ms access 2000 files. is there such a
beast?

Thanks
Daphne
Click to expand...

I was to recommend Kexi until i found out that their Windows version is
commercial ware.

http://www.kexi-project.org/
Kexi Project Homepage - Home

But... if are willing to download a livecd linux distro with this
program (it comes with kde office) see below:

<http://ktown.kde.org/~binner/klax/koffice.html>
"Klax" KOffice 1.4.2 Live-CD

What this version have:
<http://www.koffice.org/announcements/announce-1.4.2.php>
The KOffice Project - KOffice 1.4.2 Announcement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koffice
KOffice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kexi mdb support:

<quote>
Q4.1: Is reading/writing of Microsoft Access .mdb files available? If
so, how feature-rich is this module?
A4.1: Currently, importing table schemas and data is supported using
import driver (MS Access data types are carefully mapped to Kexi data
types).
The driver is available in Subversion repository but it's not kept in
the Kexi source tree yet (for users' convenience, it is planned to move
the driver into Kexi itself).
<quote>

http://www.kexi-project.org/wiki/wikiview/index.php?MDBDriver
Kexi Project Homepage - Development Wiki

<quote>
Currently are supported .mdb and .mde database files created with MS Jet
Engine version 3.0 (MS Access 95 and 97) and MS Jet Engine 4.0 (MS
Access 2000 or newer).
<quote>
 
Open Office is what you want. It is compatible with: [...]
AND, while it IS NOT compatible
with ACCESS, you can have the people
send you a copy of the file in dBASE format
and import it right into the Open Office Database.
Click to expand...

Depends on a lot of factors, whether this is truly an option. The *.mdb
may come from a source not willing or able to do the necessary work of
saving separate dBase files. Access can handle field types, lengths,
and such which dBase cannot. The standard dBase export of Access blows
up numerical data field size considerably. And so on.

If you have an Access database (maybe even split in front- and backend)
with several dozen or hundred tables and queries (not to mention forms,
reports, and such) and extensive underlying code, then the solution you
suggested doesn't really work. In setups which are far more simple, the
usage of Access seems questionable from the start...

Btw.: Some will *always* call the usage of Access questionable... ;-)

BeAr
 
Depends on a lot of factors, whether this is truly an option. The *.mdb
may come from a source not willing or able to do the necessary work of
saving separate dBase files. Access can handle field types, lengths,
and such which dBase cannot.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ, but field type and length are part of a dBase header.
The standard dBase export of Access blows
up numerical data field size considerably. And so on.
Click to expand...

That's an Access bug, not a dBase limitation.
Btw.: Some will *always* call the usage of Access questionable... ;-)
Click to expand...

I'll give it one thing - a date is a date is a date. Try having to
guess whether you're writing for an ANSI or VMS date every time. :)
 
I beg to differ, but field type and length are part of a dBase header.
Click to expand...

Sure they are. But you can try as long as you wish:
- There's no OLE object type in dBase.
- Date fields carry no time part (as is standard within Access).
- Field names must be unique within the first 10 chars and will be
truncated on export.
- ...
That's an Access bug, not a dBase limitation.
Click to expand...

Yes. And coming to this, one that's been annoying me from v1.1 to
Access 2003. I always had to write my own export routines to get
properly formatted dBase output. But that's not the point. What I
tried to explain is: Most people will not be able (or don't whish
to invest the necessary time) to solve the problems, they run into
while exporting from Access to dBase. Another important one is the
loss of significant decimal places when using the standard export
on fields with Double precision...

BeAr
 
Back
Top